The New Zealand Times. WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 13, 1915. THE PUBLIC PURSE

New Zealand Times, Volume XL, Issue 9173, 13 October 1915, Page 6

The New Zealand Times. WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 13, 1915. THE PUBLIC PURSE

At a-moment when the wage-earning classes are being required to submit their necks to a vastly heavier yoke of taxation, and. people of the slenderest means are making the sacrifices of self-denial in order to augment the patriotic funds, it is obvious that the most searching scrutiny should be exercised over the public expenditure. Who would venture to say that there was any scrutiny whatever over the hundreds of thousands of pounds voted in the Supplementary Estimates that were brought down suddenly and forced through hurriedly on the last night of the session? For this scandalously indecent haste, the members of the House cannot be held responsible. They were given ■ no opportunity to voice their objection. The blame must rest against the National Government, composed as it is of clever and designing “ Reformers ” and acquiescent Liberals who have been hypnotised into complaisant silence by the flattering gift 'of office. The country has not forgotten the fran-tic-protests that Mr Massey was in the habit of making when the Liberal Government withheld the Supplementary Estimates till the last weeks of the : session. He was accustomed to denounce these methods as politically dishonest. If they were politically dishonest, what shall be said on behalf of a system under which the Supplementary Estimates, , involving the expenditure of hundreds of thousands of pounds, are kept hack till the last night of the session, and then forced through an exhausted House at, a single sitting? Verily, wo are reaching the'depths of political degradation. Of course, the purpose of this delay is palpable. There are payments on those Estimates that no conscientious and honourable Parliament would venture to . pass without a strenuous protest. These payments, if they cannot be concealed altogether, must bo smuggled through as expeditiously and with, as little discussion as possible. We published some examples of these payments in yesterday’s issue. If they do not excite public disapproval and condemnation, the public conscience must surely be dead. Take, as am illustration. the £14,031 owing by the Waitara Harbour Board to the Public Works Fund which has been written off. 1 Mr Jennings said this was the price of winning the election in that district. The promise to forego the debt was made immediately before the election. If this he true, it! furnishes a glaring commentary on the methods of cur political life. But why should it not be true when the electors of Ohaknne were bribed with the gift of the education endowments, and an attempt was made to convey away the freehold of the Te Aroha township as a consequence of a pre-election promise P It transpired that the Liberal Government refused to forgive this debt owing by the Waitara Harbour Board, which was a debt to the whole of the people of tlie country, but apparently the Liberal section in the National Government, which is still a “Reform’’ Government in everything but name, had no compunction in countenanC-. ing the transaction. Another wholly indefensible payment was the £2lO handed to Professor Salmond, Solicitor-General, for the preparation of a Cook Islands Bill. Professor Salmond is a highly-paid public officer. He draws a salary of £1250 per annum. And yet, at a time when the public finances are straitened,, when heavy additional taxation is being imposed, and the majority of the people are stinting themselves in order to contribute to the patriotic funds, two hundred guineas are given to him from the public purse as a nice little perquisite for drawing up a bill relating to the Cook Islands. Again, we remember that Mr Massey used to wax very indignant about the payment of. large sums of money to legal gentlemen in addition to their statutory salaries, and was accustomed to invite the people to regard this sort of thing rs a scandal. Of course, ho docs not consider this extra payment to Professor Salmond as a scandal. However, seeing that the payment has been made, we must be content to regard Professor Salmond as a very fortunate individual. Ho has contrived to do very

well for himself while both sides in politics were in office. Then again there is the payment of £SOO for travelling expenses to Mr G. L. Tacon, the privileged gentleman who went to South America at the public expense, to inquire how the large rosy apples were getting on. Mr Tacon was formerly an active officer of the Reform League at Sumner, near Christchurch, bufc immediately before the last election he was seized with prickings of conscience. In the public press he confessed that he was disappointed with Mr Massey and Mr Allen, hut especially Mr Allen, and thought they ought to he replaced by better men. Of course, in view of this political recantation, Mr Tacon became an awkward circumstance to the Government with a general election pending, and the last that was heard from Mr Tacon was that he was searching in South America for a market for large coloured apples. Mr Tacon has now received his emolument from the public purse. But it is fair to ask whether it was to make good useless expenditure of this kind that the indirect taxation of the people was heavily increased. If there had been no National Government, a vigorous protest would have been made against this payment, hut for the lime being honest Liberal criticism is stifled.

One more example, and we have finished. Here is a lovely item from the Estimates:—

Cost of repairing motor-car used by Prime Minister, maliciously damaged at public meeting at Ponsonhy. Auckland. £2O.

Is the Prime Minister entitled to dip his hand .into the public purse to make good the damage done to a motor-car on an electioneering outing? If he is, then it is quite obvious that ho is entitled to charge the hire of the motor-car to the people. If he can make the people pay for the damage to his motor-car tyres while he was ip an election scrimmage, he can equally make them pay for the damage ,to his trousers or his belltopper. When the motor-car suffered this injury, Mr Massey was attending Mr Bradney’s election meeting at Ponsonhy, and it. cannot he argued that he was there on public business. Wo are amazed that Mr Massey’s conscience allowed him bo take this money from the public purse, and more especially so when we remember that Mr Massey’s conscience once revolted against accepting the increased members’ honorarium, though : it had been voted by Parliament. However; that was only for a year. For the moment, the increase , was handed to the local public library, but gradually Mr Massey’s conscience accommodated itself to the increased honorarium. Apparently, ,that conscience has now become more elastic. But what an example to the people, who are told to practise thrift and self-denial, give liberally to patriotic funds, and accept additional burdens of taxation uncomplainingly! Perhaps it was just as well that these Supplementary Estimates were rushed through furtively and hurriedly. 1 If there were many more payments like the £2O to Mr Massey, for malicious damage to his motor tyres while he was in an election scrimmage, there was much reason for searching criticism.